Raphael, Cellini, and a Renaissance Banker: The Patronage of Bindo Altoviti

October 8, 2003–January 11, 2004

One of the most powerful bankers of the Renaissance, Bindo Altoviti developed close ties with artists in Rome and Florence. Raphael and Cellini made dynamic, and very different portraits of Altoviti, and these two works (from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Gardner Museum) will be brought together for the first time in more than two hundred years. Works of art borrowed from collections in Europe and the United States, give a full picture of the banker’s collection and raise issues around how a banker could become a patron during the High Renaissance, a period of almost overwhelming richness in the arts.

Raphael, Cellini, and a Renaissance Banker: The Patronage of Bindo Altovitihas been made possible by the generous support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and UBS.This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.

Bindo Altoviti (1491-1556) was a powerful banker to the papacy, a patron of the arts, and, at the end of his life, a major opponent of the Medici family who ruled Florence. He divided his time between Florence, where his family was from (and where his wife and children lived), and Rome, where his business was based. At the age of 16 he inherited his father's bank: by shrewd financial and political dealings, he amassed one of the largest fortunes in Italy.

Bindo was a friend of many important Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo, Cellini, Raphael, and Vasari. When he was 20, Raphael painted his portrait; at 58 he turned to Cellini for a portrait in bronze. Giorgio Vasari painted frescoes in Bindo's Roman residences, as well as an altarpiece for the family church in Florence.

The Exhibition

Raphael, Cellini, and a Renaissance Banker: The Patronage of Bindo Altoviti brings together 24 Renaissance works - mostly drawn from Altoviti's own personal collection. This exhibition opens a window on the life, business, and collecting habits of one of the Renaissance's most important - though historically overlooked - patrons.

The exhibition begins with an early Portrait of Bindo Altoviti by Raphael (National Gallery of Art, Washington, ca. 1512), painted shortly after Altoviti inherited his father's bank. Raphael portrays Altoviti as an ideal, graceful Florentine youth. The portrait exemplifies Raphael's mature style and is a beautiful depiction of Altoviti in his early career.

Objects and decorative arts representative of Bindo Altoviti's life are also exhibited - including one of the first examples of a marriage service, a ceramic plate showing the joint arms of the Altoviti and Soderini families (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, ca. 1524). This piece commemorates Altoviti's marriage into the prominent Soderini family in 1511, when he married Fiammetta Soderini, the grand-niece of Piero Soderini, the ruler of Republican Florence. An opponent of the Medici family, Piero Soderini commissioned Michelangelo's David for the city of Florence.

Other objects in the exhibition include additional paintings, sculpture, bronze medals, manuscripts and drawings based on works in Altoviti's collection by such Renaissance artists as Girolamo da Carpi, Pirro Ligorio, Domenico Poggini, Francesco Salviati, Jacopo Sansovino and Giorgio Vasari. These works reveal much about Altoviti's artistic patronage, tastes, personality and intellectual and religious beliefs.

In contrast to Raphael's early portrait is the monumental bronze bust, Portrait of Bindo Altoviti by Benvenuto Cellini (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 1549). Cellini's portrayal of Altoviti shows the banker in middle-age, at the height of his power, and as a more mature, contemplative figure. This bronze is remarkable in its portrayal of the banker as a humanist, devoted to worldly affairs. This bust is the only certain sculpture by Cellini in the United States. Recently discovered documents date the work to 1549.

Cellini created just one other monumental bronze bust, Portrait of Cosimo de' Medici (Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence, ca. 1545-48) depicting Altoviti's great rival, Duke Cosimo de' Medici. Quite different from the private, humanistic portrayal of Bindo Altoviti, the Cosimo de' Medici is a public and militaristic figure, aggressive and almost overwhelming in its grandeur. This contrast implies a great deal about Altoviti's standing in Renaissance society and politics and provides interesting insight into this political rivalry.

Bindo's Life

Bindo Altoviti was born in Rome into a prominent Florentine family. His father had set up a bank in Rome, but he died in 1507, leaving the 16-year-old Bindo as head of the family business. In 1511, Bindo married Fiammetta Soderini, uniting him with one of the most politically powerful families in Florence. Her uncle was ruler of the Republic of Florence, although in 512 he was exiled by the Medici.

Bindo's bank in Rome made its money principally by lending money to the pope, who headed a vast bureaucracy that administered not only the Church, but also Rome and the Papal States in Italy. Bindo Altoviti's influence grew steadily in the 1530s, reaching its pinnacle under Pope Paul III, when he controlled both the papal checkbook, and the supply of grain to the city of Rome.

As a banker, Bindo had remained politically neutral throughout complex changes in political leadership in Rome and Florence. However, at the end of his life he turned against Cosimo de' Medici, duke of Florence, and financed an army to re-establish republican rule there. This effort ended in defeat in 1554. Bindo was declared a rebel, and all his property in Tuscany was confiscated. He died in 1556, without having attained his ambition of removing the Medici from power.